CLEMATIS 



Pistil. — Many carpels in the polygamo-dioecious and 

 pistillate flowers; wanting in the staminate flowers. 

 As the carpels ripen the styles lengthen into conspicuous 

 feathery tails. 



Fruit. — Akenes with long, white, hairy plumes. 



Clematis. Clematis Virginidna 



The Wild Clematis is the graceful queen of our 

 northern roadsides, trailing over rocks and fences, 

 swinging its drooping sprays in charming abandon 

 from the tops of shrubs and the low branches of trees. 

 It may generally be found throughout the north, 

 blooming in midsummer, wherever there is a thicket 

 of bushes in the open, protected from cattle, or a fence 

 along a shady roadside. The roots need the coolness 

 and moisture which the thicket gives, and the stems, 

 woody but weak, require support so the plant shoulders 

 its way up to the sunlight. 



63 



